Agenda item

To receive an update on the key areas of work within the Economic Development and Transformation Executive Portfolio over the past twelve months.

The Committee received a report summarising Council’s work over the past twelve months which was encompassed by the Economic Development and Transformation Executive Portfolio; a portfolio which covered asset management, car parking, corporate property, data protection and Freedom of Information, Economic Development, ICT and Digital and service transformation.  Key areas of work over the past twelve months had included:

·         The retendering of the Asset Management Contract for the Square shopping centre, with an expectation that the successful bidder would be in post by Spring 2023.

·         The introduction of cashless payment options at all Council owned car parks

·         Providing responses to 616 Freedom of Information requests and 63 Data Protection Individual Rights requests .

·         The provision of support to 1,000 businesses through the distribution of the Governments Additional Restrictions Grants.

·         Securing £97,000 of funding to enable the Workshop Youth Hub project to be staffed for a further twelve months.

·         Relocation of the Workshop Youth Hub project into a larger unit which enabled the project to expand their offer.

·         Consolidation of the cloud based ICT services on to the Azure Virtual Desktop  system.

·         Deployment of 218 laptops to staff, and the associated removal of desktop terminals, enabling greater levels of agile working and the refurbishment of the old desktop computers which were then donated to charity.

·         The commencement of work to rebuild the Council’s website to enable the Council to replace unsupported and out of date software.

·         Completion of the Star Chamber budgeting process resulting in the identification of £660,000 of savings in the 2022/23 financial year.

The proliferation of takeaway delivery drivers parking in the High Street during the evenings was noted and it was questioned whether suggestions made previously about the possibility of providing an official waiting area off the High Street for these vehicles had been explored.  The Committee was assured that the matter was being considered and updates would be provided as the matter progressed.

The impact of increasing charges at all the Council’s car parks had been mixed. There had been a significant decline in the use of Yorktown car park something that was attributed to a change in working patterns following the pandemic restrictions with fewer people working in the adjacent BasePoint serviced offices.  There was anecdotal evidence to suggest that the introduction of charges in Chobham car park was causing increasing numbers of people to use the recreation ground and Chobham Common and an increase in littering in these areas.  It was confirmed that bi-monthly reviews of Chobham car park were taking place and the findings would be shared with members.  Reviews of the Burrell Road and Yorktown Road car parks would also take place.

It was clarified that the projected £300,000 cost of replacing the car park control and management system in multi-storey car parks included funding to replace the infrastructure used to support the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system.  A suggestion that differential parking rates be applied to Council owned car parks with drivers parking on the ground floor or close to the elevators and exits being charged more than those who parked further away was noted however it was stressed that adoption of this approach would be dependent on the availability of suitable new technology.

The decision by Surrey County Council to take on responsibility for managing all on-street parking operations across Surrey from 1^st April 2023 was noted and it was confirmed that staff would be subject to a TUPE process as part of this transfer.  Concerns about the restricted nature of the tender framework that the County Council proposed to use to procure a provider to manage the service going forward was noted and it was agreed that clarity would be sought on how many companies would be eligible to bid under the framework.

It was agreed that concerns about the cleanliness of the Council owned multi-story car parks would be followed up.

It was clarified that whilst the star chamber budget exercise had identified £660,000 of savings in the 2022/23 financial year this was against an original target of £475,000 and the additional savings would be put towards savings required in future years.

The Committee noted the report.